THE AUTHOR OF BEAUTY

Hello to all my friends out there in 'Blogdom'!

This morning I was reading out ot the Apocrypha in the section of Wisdom of Solomon and I found this interesting phrase:

'THE AUTHOR OF BEAUTY' and I could'nt resist comtemplating on that phrase. As I have written numerous times before, the daylilies always bring me into awesome contemplation on beauty and the Author of Beauty.

    When we look at a painting
                 or a photograph
                 or a flower
                 or a wood carving
                 or a statue 
                   such as 'David

   We not only see the beauty
           we love the beauty
          we adore the beauty
 we may even covet the beauty.
   So with great effort and much       
                      dedication
we pursue that beauty, even if at times that pursuing,                
      that attainment
              requires sacrifice
                     but
         no matter the sacrifice,
             we have conquered!

           And yet we have lost-

             be it relationships,
                   finances, jobs,
                  homes, families,
                   we have lost.

While all the time the very thing
                   we 'worshiped', 
            the thing we coveted,
               became our demise.

How easy to forget
      The Creator that gave to us
              the material
              the knowledge
              the understanding
              the skill
      to create a thing of beauty.

When in all reality,
  all truthfullness,
  He and only He is 
the Author of Beauty.

Then and only then can we truly appreciate what we have been
              given, given to 
                    enjoy, 
                     but 
               not to idolize,
               not to worship,
because we think we created it. 
Oh may we humble ourselves and worship the Creator of all things, the Author of Beauty!

    John 15:5 says "...without Me you can do nothing". We need to think on that and really know what that means! 

      Below are some of the beauties I have been blessed to have a small part in with our Author of Beauty. They are all out of one of my favorite cultivars, RUFFLED STRAWBERRY PARFAIT.

 The parent of the one to the left is a seedling named "Beyond Comprehension"  and RSP. It is the full sib to the ruffled salmon one below and a clear vivid red with fascinating midrib details.

 This one to the right and above is 3/4 related to the
red one below as it is also from an IMPERIAL WIZARD seedling X RSP. I dubbed it 'Salmon Catch' as it is the clean color of salmon. It stands 36" tall and is 6-7" in bloom size and has 'quite the teeth'.

 The one to the left is out of an IMPERIAL WIZ-ARD seedling X RSP. I see a pattern trying to
evolve in the center. It is very tall and well branched
also.

 Can you see this one to the right
towering above the others?
It is a whopping 52" high! I 'dubbed'
it 'Neck High' as that's where it reaches
up to me! The pic at the top of this
blog is a closeup of it. It is out of a tall
BROADWAY RUBY SLIPPERS
seedling which was ver unexpected
because BRS is very red BUT quite
short!
The deep red one below, with a red halo is out of a JAMAICAN MID-NIGHT seedling x RSP. It too is quite tall. It has a definite black overlay to it and seems to go darker to the edge.

This JAMAICAN MIDNIGHT seedling x RSP stands 44" tall! I garden named it "Above All Else". This bloomed for the first time last year in our horrible summer so I am just hoping and praying  that it will shine even more with at least an average summer!

 And yet another JAMAICAN MIDNIGHTseedling X RSP in a beautiful true cherry with extra wide
 petals, some undulating ruffles and gold glitz.

 This deep ruby red velvet bloom (below) brought these words out of my mouth when I saw it:
 "Just what I wanted!" It is fully related to the cherry red seedling above, and yet it has ivory teeth and much deeper colors! It is one of the latest bloomers in the garden which really sets off a spark of color near the end of the season.

The camera doesn't fully capture the unusal colors of this JAMAICAN
MIDNIGHT seedling X RSP. It is a rose mauve with true lavender/grape ruffles and watermarked eye that is lined in purple. I never would have guessed this combination of colors, much less the amount of ruffles coming from a JAMAICAN MIDNIGHT seedling!

 The eye from this one came from my ew Fall intro RAINBOW OF GLORY
and it as you can tell by now has RSP as the other parent. Again the camera doesn't capture how it just 'beams' out as you as you look at it , but it does! I garden named it 'Beam". I might just breed it to the one above and double up on the color and on RSP and mabe put some ruffely teeth on the edge! It is a late bloomer like RSP.

The one below is a full sib with completely different colors and characteristics-that's what I so enjoy about breeding-the element of surprise!

 Below is a beautiful red bitone with a shadow of a deeper red eye that I will be using in my Red-on-Red pattern program. It is out of my new intro ABLAZE IN GLORY (CRITICAL MASS X BEAR CLAWS)
 X RSP and has very wide petals again with a wonderful toothy glitzy yellow edge.  It's first year of bloom gave only 10 buds and 2way branching (during that horrible summer I wrote about) and is 28" x 5.5"

 Below is a full sib to the seedling above and sports orange teeth on a cherry bloom with a deeper cherry halo in the center.

 ABLAZE IN GLORY X RSP gave a large array of reds...the one below is a very dark red velvet with the beginnings of bear claws. This is the rebloom scape. I like the very green throat and hint of a halo to work with.

 The one above is the same cross as the two above (AIG X RSP) and yet it has quite a wild edge and the colors are toward the pink spectrum. I hope the 10 buds and 2 way branching gets much better!

 This red seedling above and below is out of one of my favorite cardinal red seedlings out of (HEAL THY SPIRIT X MORT MORSS) and RUFFLED STRAWBERRY PARFAIT. It was beautiful every day and the edging was so fancy that I garden-named it ' Christmas Ornament'. I love the bronze color on the teeth...just like an ornate picture frame!

 Below is a full sib to the seedling above, and yet in totally different red tones, with a lavender shaddowy eye and white teeth. Hopefully Even more teeth will come this summer since this was it's first year of bloom. The velvet texture is something that really appeals to me! So does the glowing green throat.

 You can see the clump effect in the
photo to the right.First year bloom, bad summer weather and yet three blooms at one time on a well branched scape!
 I like!!

 Below are a few of the RSP X SEIZE THE NIGHT seedlings that looked particularly good last summer. For many of them this was their 2nd year of bloom. This first pic and two other pics of it is garden named 'Bronze Teeth' , a very smooth happy daylily.

 The photo above of 'Bronze Teeth is during the later, hotter , dry days.
Below is a full sib garden-named 'Curley Cewels' taken after a downpour in the night. It is a pink rose with yellow tendrils and teeth, a deep green throat.

Below is an older RUFFLED STRAWBERRY PARFAIT X UKN seedling that has some beautiful babies on the ground. It is a very smooth red with a pink watermark, gold teeth and always flat and wide open no mmatter what the weather!

 The next few are out of WESTBOURNE NIGHTLY PRAYERS X RUFFLED STRAWBERRY PARFAIT and most of them bloomed 2 yrs from planting. these are all full sibs.

 We dubbed this one to the right and
below, Green Teeth for obvious reasons.

Even though this one is only 18" tall (first year bloom so it may get taller) it is worty of observation, not only for its abundant beautiful toothiness, but for its vivid intense colors.  Very few buds last summer, but I sure am hoping for greater things! It's very late so I need to be patient! 

 WBPXRSP below garden-named Men's Prayer Breakfast'

 WBPXRSP above named "Prayer Vigil" with pure white teeth.

WBPXRSP "Triple Pink"

 WBPXRSP we came across the one above last summer and the first thing we said was "Whoa"!!
The two photos below is of a full sib garden-named "Wiskers".

Apocrypha Wisdom of Soloman 13:3-5
'If through delight in the beauty of these things men assumed  them to be gods, let them know how much better than these is their Lord, for the Author of Beauty created them. And if men were amazed at their power and working, let them perceive from them how much powerful is He who formed them. For from the greatness and beauty of created things comes corresponding perception of their Creator.

    It is my hope that you will be reminded how special you are as one of Gods' beautiful creations and that you will look at life a little differently when you recognize the AUTHOR OF BEAUTY in a very real and personal way. 
God Bless.....

Nancy